teins is being obtained in order to define their 

 active centers. 



A recent listing of achievements in ERDA's high 

 energy physics programs leads off with the 1973 

 discovery of neutral currents and the discoveries 

 in 1974 of direct lepton production and of the psi/J 

 family, observation in 1975 and 1976 of strong spin 

 effects in polarized proton scattering and of unu- 

 sual antineutrino scattering, discovery in 1976 of 

 pion-muon atoms, and discovery in 1976 of 

 charmed mesons and baryons. The scientific impli- 

 cations of these achievements are profound. The 

 experiments reveal a fourth "charmed'" quark and 

 a possible new lepton as among the short list of the 

 most basic constituents of matter and energy 

 (which earlier was limited to three quarks, four 

 leptons, and their antiparticles). The experiments 

 suggest that the quark binding energy in hadronic 

 matter may exceed the GeV range and may be the 

 manifestation of a new basic force. It appears in- 

 creasingly likely that all of the basic types of 

 forces may be unified in a single framework analo- 

 gous to the equations of Maxwell (which unified 

 electrical and magnetic forces) and Einstein (which 

 unified mass and energy). 



Recent achievements in the materials sciences 

 part of ERDA's basic energy sciences program in- 

 clude the following: (I) Reduction in stress corro- 

 sion cracking of austenitic stainless steels through 

 use of inhibitors, (2) densification of refractory 

 mixed oxides at much lower temperatures than 

 previously, (3) detailed analysis of the oxidation of 

 carbon monoxide on a platinum catalyst, (4) deter- 

 mination of the effect of impurities on the critical 

 transition temperature of niobium-germanium su- 

 perconductor, and (5) development of a method 

 for partitioning tritium between molten lithium and 

 a fused salt mixture with subsequent selective 

 electrolysis. 



Achievements listed for the chemical sciences 

 and the engineering, mathematics, and geosciences 

 subprograms include: (I) Establishment of the sci- 

 entific feasibility of three different thermochemical 

 cycles for producing hydrogen from water, (2) de- 

 termination of the temperatures and densities of 

 major constituents of turbulent flames by Raman 

 spectroscopy, (3) successful modeling of the cas- 

 cading effect in atomic spectroscopy, (4) establish- 

 ment and operation of a computer network, and (5) 

 discovery that many ampere electric currents will 

 be generated in the Alaska pipeline by sun-induced 

 magnetic storms. 



Achievements in the nuclear physics program 

 and in the nuclear sciences part of the basic energy 

 sciences program include: (1) Improved under- 

 standing of nuclear mass and electric charge distri- 

 bution through high precision measurements at the 

 Anderson Meson Physics and the Bates Linear 



Accelerator Facilities. (2) evaluation of the baryon 

 resonance contributions to the properties of nuclei, 

 (3) acceleration of the calcium isotope of mass 48 

 at the Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory accelerator 

 known as Super HILAC, and (4) development of a 

 new technique for measurement of neutron cross 

 sections for microgram samples of actinide ele- 

 ments. 



Current and Future Research 

 Emphasis 



The strongest growth among the basic research 

 efforts in the physical sciences is foreseen to be in 

 the chemical sciences and materials sciences sub- 

 programs. High percentage growth is also foreseen 

 for work in the geosciences category, but it will 

 start from a very small base. 



Fossil fuel chemistry, combustion, and photo- 

 conversion are typical of the areas receiving in- 

 creased emphasis in the chemical sciences subpro- 

 gram. A variety of research projects are underway 

 on coal, coal constituents, and catalysts, including 

 studies of catalyst fouling and regeneration, of 

 fossil materials characterization and conversion 

 reactions, and of chemical and physical techniques 

 for analysis. The fundamental combustion studies 

 concern topics such as identification of short-lived 

 reaction products, measurement of turbulence and 

 reaction rates, and improvement of theories for 

 predicting experimentally unmeasureable rates. In 

 the area of phot ocon version, expanded efforts are 

 underway on artificial photosynthesis, photochemi- 

 cal generation of fuels, and photogalvanic genera- 

 tion of electricity. 



Special emphasis in the materials sciences sub- 

 program is being given, for example, to new stud- 

 ies involving electrical conduction in materials and 

 to metals and ceramics useful for high temperature 

 application. Specific topics include semiconductors 

 for solar energy applications, superionic materials 

 for batteries, electrical conduction in ceramics for 

 magnetohydrodynamic and fusion energy applica- 

 tions, superconductors for electrical storage and 

 transmission, ceramics for turbine applications, 

 high temperature coatings, refractory alloys fbr 

 high temperature batteries, corrosion at high tem- 

 peratures, and high temperature composite materi- 

 als. 



Two construction projects are just getting under- 

 way for major facilities serving the chemical sci- 

 ences and materials sciences subprograms. A com- 

 bustion research facility will be built adjacent to 

 the Sandia Laboratories site at Livermore, Calif. 

 A synchrotron radiation facility will be built at 

 Brookhaven National Laboratory. Both have been 

 designed as user facilities so that a major share of 



ENERGY RESEARCH i DEVELOPMENT ADMINISTRATION 1 73 



